The Son of Suns
by kiku65
Summary: Oneshot POV of Vader, sorry ANAKINS last moments. Better than it sounds hopefully. Please R&R.


The son of suns

An interpretation of the death of Anakin, from his P.O.V. Many thanks to Matthew Stover and his book 'Revenge of the Sith', which this draws heavily from. Also much gratitude towards the author of 'Ignite the Stars'. My only quibble with them is that they took the words right out of my keyboard 

_This is the death of Anakin Skywalker_

As you tear the monster you have called 'Master' for the last two decades away from your son, a strange thing happens. As the lightning crawls over you, melting flesh and metal together, you feel something you haven't felt since the night you stepped out of the Chancellors office on Coruscant, when you embraced your life as a Sith lord.

Joy.

Pride

Pride in yourself and your son, who would not turn and make your mistake. Joy at doing something _right_, at leaving behind what had felt like a lifetime of evil, to do what you had always been meant to do.

Saving people. It's what you were born for.

The joy does not diminish, even when the pain becomes unbearable, as the Dark energy blasting you strips away your life. It cannot touch you, not anywhere that counts, because inside you feel more a Jedi than you ever did as a Padawan, and you know, finally, a Jedi's calm. It stays with you until you do what your old master was constantly nagging and worrying you should do.

You _let go._

Of your fear. Of your life.

And of Palpatine.

Then the calm leaves you, leaving only exhaustion, and agonising pain. As you hold the edge of the rail and watch the Sith plummet downwards it is all you can do to stay upright and not follow him down into the darkness. As the Darkside energy released by his passing consumes you, you think that you might.

Until two small hands pull you back into life. Your son is here. You can sense his gratitude, and his love. He pulls you away from the abyss below, but you can feel his lingering pain and weakness from the Emperors punishment, and so are completely unsurprised when he lacks the strength to help you stand, and merely holds you while you both recover. You feel the pressure as he grips your hand, and his silent plea.

_Stay with me._

It brings back memories of the Tusken camp, as you pleaded with your mother to _stay with me; everything's going to be alright._ But you know now, as she must have done, that you are dieing. It breaks your heart that you must leave your child. You know the pain and loneliness he will feel, even with his sister's help and support. But for now you simply grip his hand back, and send a silent reply.

_My son. I'm so proud of you. _

The spell breaks as you both hear an explosion that rocks the spire you are in. your son staggers to his feet and pulls you up with him. He supports you, and helps you walk to the elevator.

A brief journey downwards gives you time to think how to escape the Death Star. Not you- you know your life is over. But now your son is in danger, and like the Jedi Commander you once were, you start to form a plan of action. Mentally you try to remember the quickest route to the nearest hanger bay, and when you do you try to tell your son. Still too tired and full of pain to speak, you send a whisper of a thought to him as you leave the elevator, a picture of a TIE fighter and where they were berthed.

Your son agrees but sends back a picture of his own, of a Lamba-class shuttle, along with the message _we need a ship that has room for two._ Too tired to argue that there will be no need- that you will not leave the Death Star alive- you just nod and let him lead you down the endless corridors to the hanger bays.

Every step bleeds a little more of your strength away, and the journey seems to carry on forever. You remember another ship, at the battle of Coruscant, when you rescued the man who would help you ruin your life, when you looked into the eyes of Count Dooku and took a decisive step towards the Darkside. As the memory grows stronger it seems as if it is your younger self walking beside you, supporting you and reassuring you that you will make it, that all you need to do is hang on and keep walking. He fades away as your path into the past leads you to the aftermath of the battle, when you held your wife in your arms and heard the news that would change your life. You are surprised that the memory of her face doesn't bring the pain and guilt it has for the last twenty-three years. Now you only feel the echo of the joy you had felt then.

A strange thought occurs to you as you gradually near the hanger.

_He's not only my child. He is Padme's as well. As is Leia._

You find it strange that you had never thought of this before. Of course, before you had been focused on his power in the Force, which was undoubtedly something he had inherited from you. The most prominent of his other skills, his starfighter piloting, was also something that would connect him with you, and not his mother.

But now you realise that he must have inherited something of her, if only the light inside him that made him burn in the Force like star. She had felt like that as well, something that you had seen even as a nine year old boy, the thing that had prompted you to ask _are you an angel?_

She had laughed at you then, but you had meant every word. Even ten years later, you had still thought of her as an angel. When you had seen her in her apartment with Obi-Wan, you had known enough of the Force to recognise that her light was not that of a Jedi, but that of a good person. But that did not matter. It had only made her more beautiful.

You almost smile as you remember your conversation with her after you found out she was pregnant.

"_You're so beautiful"_

"_That's only because I'm so in love"_

"_No! It's because I'm so in love with you"_

Then she had teased you – "so love has blinded you?" You had laughed and denied that was what he had meant. You had never been afraid then that she would ever think you did not love her, or that you didn't think she was the most wonderful thing in your life.

Now the memories of her come in a rush, each more precious than the last. The picnic in the lake country, your conversation before facing the arena on Geonosis, how you had joked together after she had told you of her pregnancy. You had been so sure the child she had carried was a girl, while she had been equally adamant that it was a boy.

"_It's my motherly intuition"_

How you had laughed and said _"Motherly intuition, huh? With a kick that hard? Definitely a girl"_ From what you have found out from your son, you were both right.

A brief jerk brings you back to the present, a present of pain and weariness instead of love and happiness. You realise your son has stumbled and almost fallen, letting you drop. As you are dragged to the entrance of the shuttle, you know you have to speak to your son now, before it's too late.

"Luke…help me take… this mask off"

It was the mask of Darth Vader. You don't want to die wearing it. You want to die as Anakin Skywalker.

"But you'll die"

It almost makes you laugh, if you had the strength. You have been dieing from the moment Palpatine had rescued you from Mustafar.

"Nothing…can stop that now. Just for once…let me look on you with my own eyes"

_Your_ eyes. Not the red-tinged gaze of Darth Vader.

A brief moment of dread passes through you as your son lifts away the mask. You know what damage had been done to him by the fire and Obi-Wan. Even the barest glimpse had been enough to make Admiral Piett avert his eyes. You don't want your son to shrink away from you in disgust as well. You don't want him to avert his gaze from you, or pity you. The moment passes as the mask is lifted away and you see your sons face.

There was no disgust there, or pity. Only love.

Perhaps the person who saves your life is always beautiful, no matter what they look like.

You smile. All you have to do now is persuade your son to save himself. It isn't going to be easy. Skywalkers have a weakness for trying to save others first.

"Now…go my son. Leave me"

If your son were to die here with you, your death will be meaningless.

"No, you're coming with me. I'll not leave you here; I've got to _save _you"

It seemed he has inherited another thing from his father as well. Perhaps the galaxy had another Skywalker to save people now. With any luck this one will turn out better than the last.

But right now the future doesn't matter. All that does is that you tell your son what you have felt since killing Palpatine.

"You already have Luke."

Your son has saved you from an eternity of darkness. Compared to that, death has no fears for you.

One thing does though. You try to tell him…

"You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister…"

You want her to know you weren't always a monster. You want her to remember you as her father, not a tool of the Emperor.

"…you were right."

You know he will tell her. Now you can leave.

You here him calling you, trying to bring you back...

"Father!"

But you can't stay any longer. The Force is already claiming you.

You hear your son telling you that he won't leave you, and you try to tell him that you know he won't. Even the Emperor had known that Luke would not give up on you, although he couldn't understand why. But already you are setting foot upon the path of the Force, and you can no longer speak or move. But you can tell him…

_I know you will not leave me Luke. You don't know how much that matters to me._

As you start your journey you feel the strangest thing. As if you were young again, Anakin Skywalker as Padme and Obi-Wan had known you during the Republic. Not as they had known you during its last days, when the war and your own fear had already started to darken you, but how you were in the lake country of Naboo, or before you set of to rescue Palpatine.

Young and free and full of light.


End file.
